Railway's new season gets successfully underway

 * The first train arrives at Corwen East.

Llangollen Railway resumed train services through the Dee Valley from last Saturday when trains operated between Llangollen and the new terminus at Corwen. 

This followed a mid winter shut down whilst essential maintenance work on the railway has been undertaken and facilities at the new station have been completed.

The first train service was hauled by Great Western Large Prairie tank 5199,

Despite being a gloomy day, passengers joined the train at Corwen and others alighted to take in the town and the newly opened railway exhibition in Capel Goch.

Sunday was a better day when the sun came out and allowed for the train formation to be seen reversing out from Corwen, propelled by 5199 at the rear.

 

On normal weekday services three steam trains a day will operate from Llangollen, arriving at Corwen at 11.20, 13.37 and 15.47.
 

The 2015 timetable for the heritage railway provides for all public service trains to operate through to the temporary station at Dwyrain Corwen East as the new line extension is brought into regular use.

 

The exceptions are trains during the popular Days Out with Thomas events which will terminate at Carrog where activities are arranged for visitors.
 

In the absence of a run round loop, the timetable only allows short stop over period at Corwen, as the mode of operation for the return journey provides for the train to be propelled back to Carrog under the control of a driver in the specially modified rear coach.

 

This operation provides for the steam engine to ‘run round’ the train at Carrog where a longer stop over takes place and changes the arrangements which have become familiar to regular visitors.
 

During the current half term week, off-peak diesel railcar services are running with trains arriving at Corwen 11.35, 13.35 and 1535, departing five minutes later.

 

The diesel railcars with their exciting view of the line ahead, as seen from behind the driver, provide an excellent way for passengers to appreciate all the work that went into rebuilding the line from Carrog through to Corwen over the past three years.

 

The two-hourly weekday train service operates from March 23 and provides for visitors to spend time in Corwen, or to join the train at Corwen to travel to Llangollen for a short visit. At selected weekends an hourly service will offer more diversity of opportunities for travel.

 

The need is for the extended line to attract more visitors who will contribute to the regeneration of the area and improve the viability of the heritage train services.

2015 is an important year for the Llangollen Railway which celebrates the 150^th anniversary of the opening of the original Llangollen & Corwen Railway in 1865. 

It is also the 40^th anniversary of the start of the challenge to rebuild the railway after the derelict station at Llangollen was taken over by volunteers in 1975.

The 2015 season has a full range of special events planned, starting with a Day Out With Thomas weekend on February 21/22.

Police clamp down on illegal off-roaders

Yesterday (Sunday 15^th February), North Wales Police joined forces with Natural Resources Wales and Denbighshire County Council to tackle the issue of illegal off-roading and associated activity.

The operation, the second in a series designed to tackle the issue, saw teams of officers deployed around several areas in the Glyn Ceiriog, Dee Valley and Moel Fferna areas.

Inspector Gareth Jones explained “We had a lot of officers out yesterday, with officers from the Special Constabulary, Roads Policing Unit, Central and Eastern Divisions all assisting.  The aim was to target specific locations where we were expecting issues, whilst also having the ability to respond to calls from members of the public as and when they came in.

“It was an eventful day. We seized four vehicles, reported 12 others for various motoring offences, and also issued a formal warning for cannabis."

Two vehicles were seized following reports of illegal off-road activity on land off the Horseshoe Pass.  One of these cost the owner £500 on the spot to get his vehicle back.

Three motorcycles from the Wrexham area were stopped in the Nantyr Forest, on one of which, a Suzuki RM250, the owner had just made up a number plate and attached it to the bike.

Inspector Jones added “That’s not how it works, so we seized it and reported the rider.”

A large group of bikes from the Wirral area were stopped as they passed the church in Glyn Ceiriog. 

One bike was seized, and the others reported for motoring offences.

Inspector Jones said: "One rider didn’t have an appropriate driver's licence, so we seized that bike as well."

Several 4 x 4’s were also stopped as part of the operation.  Their tanks were dipped and the vehicles checked over by traffic officers. 

One was issued a S59 notice and reported, whilst the passenger was searched and a quantity of cannabis recovered.

Insp Jones added: “It was an interesting day.  Those that were illegal were dealt with appropriately, whilst those that were legal were both supportive of our operation and understood the reasons behind it.  That was pleasing to see.”

St David's Day to be celebrated at St John's

St John’s, Abbey Road presents a St David’s Day Celebration on Sunday, March 1, with a Welsh tea at 4pm and Songs of Praise at 4pm.

Difference of opinion on Castle Street traffic

* Response at foot of story from Cllr Thane + response from Keep Llangollen Special

A county councillor has questioned the need to have a specialist look at tackling traffic problems in Castle Street, Llangollen.

As llanblogger reported recently, town councillor Phil Thane is proposing to ask a firm of traffic management specialists to come up with a “new vision” of how to deal with the competing needs of drivers, pedestrians and shopkeepers on the town’s busy main street. 

As Cllr Thane recently wrote on llanblogger: “Everyone grumbles about Castle Street.

“At the moment we have the worst of all possible solutions, some legal parking, some illegal parking, double yellows down one side giving motorists the illusion of a clear road - until they meet a large vehicle coming the other way, and pedestrians running the gauntlet.

“The only good thing is that it's so chaotic the traffic is usually slow and there haven't been any serious accidents.

“We, Llangollen Town Council and Cittaslow Llangollen, think it could be better, but it needs a new vision not just the county council putting down some more paint and harrassing shopkeepers.”

An appeal has been launched to raise the £1,000 to pay for a basic survey by a firm of traffic management specialists which would be followed by a public meeting in the Town Hall. 

But now county councillor Stuart Davies has contacted llanblogger to say: “I broadly support the Cittslow initiative as endorsed by the Town Council.

“However, I am concerned that they may be replicating work already done by the county council.

“On their funding website they discuss in great detail the problems with parking in Llangollen. It is reasonable to assume that this is the subject of the traffic management study they are attempting to raise money for.

“The county council commissioned a parking study last year of the whole of Denbighshire, with part of it looking at Llangollen. They used a company that contacted members of the public to consult with by post.

“This was brought to the Communities Scrutiny Committee last week in draft form as part of the consultation exercise.

“I attended this meeting to input in to the process. I was vociferous in my criticism of some of the conclusions and the fact that local members and Town Council hadn’t been consulted. The chair of the committee therefore asked for the report to go to the Members Area Groups (MAGs) where conclusions can be agreed.

“Myself and my fellow councillor, Rhys Hughes, also commissioned a parking needs study last year, the results of which are going to the same MAGs discussion. These two studies will enable an informed agreement of the needs and outcomes to be used in Llangollen.

“I have also asked, through the clerk, for input from the Town Council before the MAGs meeting.”

Cllr Davies has supplied this link to the Scrutiny Committee papers and the parking reports:
https://moderngov.denbighshire.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=271&MId=4916&Ver=4&LLL=0

RESPONSE FROM TOWN COUNCILLOR PHIL THANE ...

"I don't really want to get into a public row with Cllr Davies, but I cannot allow his criticism of our initiative to stand, he gives completely the wrong impression of the Castle StREET initiative set up by Cittaslow Llangollen.

 

"He says, `On their funding website they discuss in great detail the problems with parking in Llangollen. It is reasonable to assume that this is the subject of the Traffic Management Study that they are attempting to raise money for.'

 

"First, it is not our website, it is run by Crowdfunder, we merely set up a project to try to raise £1000 to pay for a brief look at all the issues in Castle Street parking is just one of them, in fact the introduction to our project reads:

 

"`Everyone grumbles about Castle Street. Drivers in a hurry to get through would like all parking banned, pedestrians would like safe crossings, shopkeepers need to load and unload and want more parking for their customers, tourists want a pleasant place to stroll.'

 

"We mention parking. We also refer to: drivers, pedestrians, shopkeepers, customers and tourists.

 

"He goes on, `It is reasonable to assume that this [parking] is the subject of the Traffic Management Study that they are attempting to raise money for.'

 

"We say on the project page:

 

`A full feasibility study will cost more than £10,000, but Ben Hamilton Baillie has offered to do a brief one day survey followed by a public meeting to explain the latest thinking about how to handle traffic in towns.'

 

"We have not asked Hamilton-Baillie to look simply at parking. There are many interlocking issues and we want to look at all of them, and the way they impact on each other.

 

"There is a link on our project page to a video explaining a scheme Hamilton-Baillie carried out in Cheshire. It's not exactly the same as our problems with Castle Street, it was worse, a busy cross roads right in the middle of town, but with some new thinking and considerable work (and money) they made a huge improvement.

 

"We want to kick-start a process leading to a complete overhaul of how our town centre is configured, for everyone's benefit. This crowd funding initiative is just the start. If we raise £1000 Ben Hamilton-Baillie will spend a day here talk to people look at the issues and give us a brief presentation in the evening. This will be open to the public, and county councillors. We hope it will lead to a debate about the next stage, how we get a proper feasibility study done. And eventually the actual work.

 

"We are all well aware that DCC has no money to spend at present, but history shows that busts are eventually followed by booms, and when the next boom comes and councils once again have money to invest in infrastructure we want to have a 'shovel-ready' project that can be implemented before the next bust.

 

"For more information please visit: http://goo.gl/1vVHVV Read it, watch the video and make up your own mind."

RESPONSE FROM KEEP LLANGOLLEN SPECIAL ...

"KLS has discussed this idea several times, so an interested party, we wonder if there’s a fear of radical thinking apparent here.

 

"It might help to point out that the concept of Shared Space isn’t so much radical as a proven, historical fact.

 

"Before the Second World War, and for a short while afterwards, the horse still prevailed over mechanised transport and Llangollen, like all towns and fledgling cities, had little use for roads and pavements as segregated domains.

 

"Llangollen has proved so awkward for modern traffic simply because our tTown evolved with horses and pedestrians which happily – and safely – comingled.

 

"The arrival of the horseless carriage brought with it a new mindset, a sense of danger of collision never present before because horses were just as aware of people around them as their riders, unlike cars and lorries.

 

"The success of the project in Poynton, Cheshire, is proof that this pre-combustion engine is easy to regain and the self-evident reduction of stress for both drivers and pedestrians would surely be welcome here.

 

"I found the idea so intriguing I joined many others in pledging £5 to the fund as I’m highly intrigued to see if this problem of safety and gridlock can be solved by our own People’s Initiative rather than simply tweaking an old system that clearly doesn’t work and is increasingly punitive instead of being inclusive."

 

Martin Crumpton

Chair, Keep Llangollen Special

Roberts welcomes new health commission agreement

North Wales Assembly Member Aled Roberts has welcomed an agreement reached between Kirsty Williams, Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, and Welsh Health Minister Mark Drakeford on the general terms of reference for a new commission to plan for the future of the Welsh NHS.

 

“We all know that there are fundamental problems with the health services here in North Wales. We need to take the party politics out of the health service and I hope that the new Commission will come up wi th proposals that can command wide-ranging support," said Mr Roberts, a Lib Dem member.

 

“Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board struggles from one crisis to another and there appears to be no clear plan. The understandable uproar at recent proposal to downgrade maternity services in Ysbyty Glan Clwyd illustrates a growing lack of trust in managers who run the Board.

 

"A Health Commission may be able to deliver a clear plan in the long term but in the short term managers who run Betsi Cadwaladr need to come up with more realistic proposals for our maternity services and engage in proper consultation.”

 

"In September 2014, Kirsty Williams AM made the first calls for an all-party and no-party Commission to ensure Wales has an NHS that is clinically and financially sustainable.  The Health Minister agreed to look at Kirsty’s proposals and they have since undertaken discussions on what the terms of reference of the Commission would be."

 

  The Health Minister has made clear that :

 

1. The commission would look at the key issues facing the NHS, in both the short and long term and would be expected to make recommendations about what the health service of the future would look like.

 

2. The commission starts work in April and that it would report either immediately before or after the election in May 2016, depending on cross-party agreement.

 

3. The commission will be chaired by someone independent of the NHS in Wales, but with local links and the knowledge and weight to make practical and credible recommendations.

 

4. Whilst the commission would include representatives from the four major parties in Wales, it would also consist of a range of people with different expertise in the health service.

 

Kirsty Williams AM is calling on Plaid Cymru and the Conservatives to agree to take part in the Commission. She said:

 

“I welcome that the Welsh Lib Dem proposals for a commission look set to be taken forward.  The Welsh Liberal Democrats remain determined to put patients first, rather than narrow-minded politics. Only then can we start to see real improvement in our NHS.

 

“The Welsh NHS has been used as a political football by people from all parties. But whatever side of the debate you’re on, it’s clear that there are significant challenges and pressures in our health services that need to be dealt with. That’s why the Welsh Lib Dems have been calling for this commission, and for clinicians and patients to play an integral role in it: so we can work together to plan for the future of our health service in Wales.

 

“It is essential that all parties in the Assembly take part.  I therefore urge both the Conservatives and Plaid Cymru to agree to put forward a representative to sit on this commission.”

 

Memories of Pavarotti at the eisteddfod

* Hafwen Ryder with her mementos of the

Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod.

  

Organisers of an exhibition to celebrate the links of superstar tenor Luciano Pavarotti to a top festival have been delighted with the ‘fantastic’ response.

Among those who got in touch was retired nurse Hafwen Ryder who has vivid memories of Pavarotti at the Llangollen International Eisteddfod.

She was still a teenager and a volunteer usher in the marquee where the Chorus Rossini from Modena in Italy performed to win the Male Voice Choir competition in 1955.

Hafwen, 75,who now lives in Chirk, said: “I remember the choir performing and that they were very good but of course no-one knew who Pavarotti was then.



* Llangollen Children’s Choir in the 1950s,
 Hafwen Ryder is second from the right.

“I do have a limited edition picture of Pavarotti when he came back to the Eisteddfod in 1995 and I’m happy to loan that to the Pavarotti exhibition being staged at this year’s event in July.”

The Eisteddfod starts on Tuesday, July 7, and runs until Sunday night, July 12, and the Pavarotti exhibition will commemorate the 60^th anniversary of the Italian maestro’s 1955 appearance and the 20^th of his return.

Hafwen’s own connections with the annual festival go back even further. She said: “I was a volunteer from my school days and I recited the Peace Message in 1953 – I remember I was coached and tested to make sure I could do it by W S Gwyn Williams, the musical director, because it was broadcast live in those days.

“I was also there in 1953 when the Obernkirchen Choir sang The Happy Wanderer and I have so many happy memories of the Eisteddfod.”

Hafwen became friends with one of the Obernkirchen girls, Erika Fisher, and they were penfriends for over 50 years until Erika’s death in 2004 and met up when she and her husband returned to Llangollen.

Her own family’s connections with the event are also strong – her brother, Delwyn Lewis, now retired, was a policeman who used to direct the traffic during Eisteddfod week and his wife, Eira, is still an active volunteer.

Hafwen, whose daughter, Helen, is an occupational therapist in Dundee, went on to train as a nurse in Liverpool and later returned to nurse in Llangollen and Chirk, and she said: “The Eisteddfod is a wonderful event and that’s shown that you can make friends with people who come there to perform and that friendship lasts for years.

“I was an usher for many years and used to sell programmes – we used to get a penny for each one we sold

“I still love to go to the Eisteddfod, especially to the Choir of the World competition on Saturdays and to the concert on Sunday if it’s a good one.”

* Luciano Pavarotti.

She also remembers the Eisteddfod Chairman, Gethin Davies, as an usher back in the 1950s and he remembers her too though he doesn’t remember the choir from Modena which launched Pavarotti’s glittering career.

“I was probably thinking about my girlfriend,” he said: “But I remember Hafwen very well and her reciting the Peace Message, she was only the second person to do it.

“I remember Pavarotti coming in 1995 and I actually introduced him onto the stage – the concert is still shown quite regularly on the Sky Arts channel.

“I was chairman and I remember he came on waving his handkerchief and he was great and sang some marvellous stuff, including one of his own composition.

"He even conducted the audience and we were all la-la-la-ing along in accompaniment.
 

“He was backed by the Modena choir which was a mixed choir by then – in 1955 it was a male voice choir.

“It was actually Pavarotti himself who initiated his return. He said it was something he had always wanted to do because of the part Llangollen had played in his career.

“He always said that it was winning at Llangollen in 1955 that convinced him that he could make singing his career and he wasn’t wrong, was he?”

Robin Argent, from Dalar Wen, Denbigh, also has fond memories of the Eisteddfod and of seeing Pavarotti in 1995.

He said: “I’ve still got the tickets my late wife, Del, and I had, £85 each. A group of us used to go to the Sunday concert every year, have a picnic on the field and go down to the concert and I particularly remember this one.

“I took a photo of Pavarotti and had it enlarged and I’ve got the actual tickets framed as well.

“It was absolutely fantastic. I’ve seen it since on TV and it was very impressive.”

It is another tenor that will be one of the stars of this year’s Eisteddfod, Alfie Boe, who will sing songs from the Musicals at the Thursday evening concert, one of the highlights of another packed week which will begin on Tuesday with Children’s Day and the Parade of Nations, led by Eisteddfod President Terry Waite before the evening Heart of Llangollen concert featuring a galaxy of international talent.

 

Wednesday’s programme will include a new competition for the International Young Musician of the Year as well as the Children’s Choir of the World while Thursday’s competitions will see another first, the International Voice of Musical Theatre Trophy.

 

Friday’s Open Category for choirs will showcase styles like gospel, barbershop, jazz, pop and glee styles and will also see the International Voice of the Future decided with the prize including the chance to sing at one of the evening concerts the following year.

 

The Blue Riband event, the Choir of the World for the Pavarotti Trophy, is decided on Saturday night as well as the Open Dance competition and Sunday sees the Eisteddfod let its hair down for Llanfest before the climactic final concert.

 

The feelgood atmosphere spreads out to the Eisteddfod field through the week as hundreds of competitors and thousands of visitors mingle with spontaneous performances breaking out.

 

Visitors can enjoy live music at the 200-seat S4C Stage, join in with dance workshops or just soak up the heady atmosphere throughout the week world-class competitors perform in a spectacular celebration of cultures with stunning choral music and lively traditional dance, especially on Folk Friday when the outdoor stages will feature world-class music and dance.

 

* To book tickets and for more details on the 2015 festival, go to the website at www.international-eisteddfod.co.uk

Councillor gives update on Abbey Road speeding

DESPITE residents’ concerns about vehicles speeding along Abbey Road in Llangollen, police say they have no record of any motorist being booked for exceeding the limit there.

That’s the latest information from the area’s county councillor, Stuart Davies.

Residents expressed their worries over speeding on the road at a meeting late last year and Cllr Davies promised to make a Freedom of Information request to North Wales Police to see how many tickets might have been issued.

He says he has now had the official answer back which shows nobody has been booked.

Cllr Davies said: “I’ve just had a report back from Sergeant Paul Hughes which says that no tickets have been issued on Abbey Road for speeding and, despite several visits by the police with hand-held radar guns, no offences have been reported.

“Sgt Hughes also told me that roads policing unit had also been down there on numerous occasions to provide local police with assistance and that they continue to do so.”

Cllr Davies added: “The offer I originally made last year to facilitate the setting up of a community group to use a hand-held radar gun to deter speeding on Abbey Road is still open. Inspector Gareth Jones is willing to help with this.

“Nobody has come forward so far but the offer is still there.”

Cllr Davies says that if anyone in Abbey Rd is interested in helping with a community-led speed deterrence group they should contact him on 01978 860832 or 07967313792 or by email at: stuart.a.davies@denbighshire.gov.uk